Listen, today’s readings are all about courage and faith in the face of impossible odds. We’ve got young David stepping up to face Goliath with nothing but trust in God, and the Psalm reminds us that the Lord is our rock who trains our hands for battle and our hearts for praise. Then in the Gospel Jesus walks into a synagogue and boldly does good even when people are watching and waiting to condemn him. What’s powerful here is how God equips his servants, whether it’s David facing a giant or Jesus healing on the Sabbath with unwavering purpose. The Alleluia reminds us Jesus preached the Gospel and cured every disease, showing God’s kingdom at work in real time. God doesn’t hold back. Faith is active and fearless in these readings, and we see how trust in God leads to victory and healing in ways we don’t expect.

Reading I

1 Samuel 17:32-33, 37, 40-51

David spoke to Saul: “Let your majesty not lose courage. I am at your service to go and fight this Philistine.” But Saul answered David, “You cannot go up against this Philistine and fight with him, for you are only a youth, while he has been a warrior from his youth.” David continued: “The LORD, who delivered me from the claws of the lion and the bear, will also keep me safe from the clutches of this Philistine.” Then, staff in hand, David selected five smooth stones from the wadi and put them in the pocket of his shepherd’s bag. With his sling also ready to hand, he approached the Philistine. With his shield bearer marching before him, the Philistine also advanced closer and closer to David. When he had sized David up, and seen that he was youthful, and ruddy, and handsome in appearance, the Philistine held him in contempt. The Philistine said to David, “Am I a dog that you come against me with a staff?” Then the Philistine cursed David by his gods and said to him, “Come here to me, and I will leave your flesh for the birds of the air and the beasts of the field.” David answered him: “You come against me with sword and spear and scimitar, but I come against you in the name of the LORD of hosts, the God of the armies of Israel that you have insulted. Today the LORD shall deliver you into my hand; I will strike you down and cut off your head. This very day I will leave your corpse and the corpses of the Philistine army for the birds of the air and the beasts of the field, thus the whole land shall learn that Israel has a God.” All this multitude, too, shall learn that it is not by sword or spear that the LORD saves.

Responsorial Psalm

Psalm 144:1b, 2, 9-10

R. Blessed be the Lord, my Rock!
Blessed be the LORD, my rock, who trains my hands for battle, my fingers for war.
R. Blessed be the Lord, my Rock!
My refuge and my fortress, my stronghold, my deliverer, my shield, in whom I trust, who subdues my people under me.
R. Blessed be the Lord, my Rock!
O God, I will sing a new song to you; on the psaltery and an instrument of ten strings I will sing praises to you. Who givest salvation to kings; who hast redeemed thy servant David from the malicious sword.
R. Blessed be the Lord, my Rock!

Gospel Acclamation

Matthew 4:23

R. Alleluia, alleluia. Jesus preached the Gospel of the Kingdom and cured every disease among the people. R. Alleluia, alleluia.

Gospel

Mark 3:1-6

Jesus entered the synagogue. There was a man there who had a withered hand. They watched Jesus closely to see if he would cure him on the sabbath so that they might accuse him. He said to the man with the withered hand, “Come up here before us.” Then he said to the Pharisees, “Is it lawful to do good on the sabbath rather than to do evil, to save life rather than to destroy it?” But they remained silent. Looking around at them with anger and grieved at their hardness of heart, Jesus said to the man, “Stretch out your hand.” He stretched it out and his hand was restored. The Pharisees went out and immediately took counsel with the Herodians against him to put him to death.

Listen, today’s readings are all about God’s unexpected choices and what it means to live by his law in the real world. In the First Reading God calls David, the youngest son, to be king while everyone else judged by outward appearances. The Psalm echoes that divine choice, celebrating how God anoints and calls his servant. In the Gospel, Jesus confronts rigid religion with a reminder that the Sabbath and all God’s commandments are meant for life and compassion, pointing us beyond external observance to heartfelt obedience and freedom. Here we see a God who looks into hearts and calls us into something new, deeper, and more life-giving. It’s powerful: God doesn’t play by human expectations, and following him asks us to trust his wisdom and mercy with our whole lives.

Reading I

1 Samuel 16:1-13

The LORD said to Samuel:
“How long will you grieve for Saul,
whom I have rejected as king of Israel?
Fill your horn with oil, and be on your way.
I am sending you to Jesse of Bethlehem,
for I have chosen my king from among his sons.”
But Samuel replied,
“How can I go?
Saul will hear of it and kill me.”
To this the LORD answered,
“Take a heifer along and say,
‘I have come to sacrifice to the LORD.’
Invite Jesse to the sacrifice, and I myself will tell you what to do;
you are to anoint for me the one I point out to you.”

Samuel did as the LORD had commanded him.
When he entered Bethlehem,
the elders of the city came trembling to meet him and inquired,
“Is your visit peaceful, O seer?”
He replied:
“Yes! I have come to sacrifice to the LORD.
So cleanse yourselves and join me today for the banquet.”
He also had Jesse and his sons cleanse themselves
and invited them to the sacrifice.
As they came, he looked at Eliab and thought,
“Surely the LORD’s anointed is here before him.”
But the LORD said to Samuel:
“Do not judge from his appearance or from his lofty stature,
because I have rejected him.
Not as man sees does God see,
because he sees the appearance
but the LORD looks into the heart.”
Then Jesse called Abinadab and presented him before Samuel,
who said, “The LORD has not chosen him.”
Next Jesse presented Shammah, but Samuel said,
“The LORD has not chosen this one either.”
In the same way Jesse presented seven sons before Samuel,
but Samuel said to Jesse,
“The LORD has not chosen any one of these.”
Then Samuel asked Jesse,
“Are these all the sons you have?”
Jesse replied,
“There is still the youngest, who is tending the sheep.”
Samuel said to Jesse,
“Send for him;
we will not begin the sacrificial banquet until he arrives here.”
Jesse sent and had the young man brought to them.
He was ruddy, a youth handsome to behold
and making a splendid appearance.
The LORD said,
“There–anoint him, for this is he!”
Then Samuel, with the horn of oil in hand,
anointed him in the midst of his brothers;
and from that day on, the Spirit of the LORD rushed upon David.
When Samuel took his leave, he went to Ramah.

Responsorial Psalm

Psalm 89:20, 21-22, 27-28

R. (21a) I have found David, my servant.
Once you spoke in a vision,
and to your faithful ones you said:
“On a champion I have placed a crown;
over the people I have set a youth.”
R. I have found David, my servant.
“I have found David, my servant;
with my holy oil I have anointed him,
That my hand may be always with him,
and that my arm may make him strong.”
R. I have found David, my servant.
“He shall say of me, ‘You are my father,
my God, the Rock, my savior.’
And I will make him the first-born,
highest of the kings of the earth.”
R. I have found David, my servant.

Alleluia

See Ephesians 1:17-18

R. Alleluia, alleluia.
May the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ
enlighten the eyes of our hearts,
that we may know what is the hope
that belongs to our call.
R. Alleluia, alleluia.

Gospel

Mark 2:23-28

As Jesus was passing through a field of grain on the sabbath,
his disciples began to make a path while picking the heads of grain.
At this the Pharisees said to him,
“Look, why are they doing what is unlawful on the sabbath?”
He said to them,
“Have you never read what David did
when he was in need and he and his companions were hungry?
How he went into the house of God when Abiathar was high priest
and ate the bread of offering that only the priests could lawfully eat,
and shared it with his companions?”
Then he said to them,
“The sabbath was made for man, not man for the sabbath.
That is why the Son of Man is lord even of the sabbath.”

Today we’re called to embrace God’s promise of rest by uniting in faith and obedience. The First Reading from Hebrews warns us to avoid the pitfalls of disobedience and strive to enter into God’s rest. The Psalm reminds us not to forget the works of the Lord, encouraging us to keep our hearts steadfast. In the Gospel, Jesus heals a paralytic, demonstrating His authority to forgive sins and inviting us to rise and walk in newness of life. Together, these passages challenge us to deepen our faith, remember God’s deeds, and trust in Jesus’s power to heal and forgive.

Reading I

Hebrews 4:1-5, 11

Let us be on our guard
while the promise of entering into his rest remains,
that none of you seem to have failed.
For in fact we have received the Good News just as our ancestors did.
But the word that they heard did not profit them,
for they were not united in faith with those who listened.
For we who believed enter into that rest, just as he has said:
As I swore in my wrath,
“They shall not enter into my rest,”
and yet his works were accomplished at the foundation of the world.
For he has spoken somewhere about the seventh day in this manner,
And God rested on the seventh day from all his works;
and again, in the previously mentioned place,
They shall not enter into my rest.
Therefore, let us strive to enter into that rest,
so that no one may fall after the same example of disobedience.

Responsorial Psalm

Psalm 78:3 and 4bc, 6c-7, 8

R. (see 7b) Do not forget the works of the Lord!

What we have heard and know,
and what our fathers have declared to us,
we will declare to the generation to come
The glorious deeds of the LORD and his strength.

R. Do not forget the works of the Lord!

That they too may rise and declare to their sons
that they should put their hope in God,
And not forget the deeds of God
but keep his commands.

R. Do not forget the works of the Lord!

And not be like their fathers, a generation wayward and rebellious,
A generation that kept not its heart steadfast
nor its spirit faithful toward God.

R. Do not forget the works of the Lord!

Alleluia

Luke 7:16

R. Alleluia, alleluia.
A great prophet has arisen in our midst
and God has visited his people.
R. Alleluia, alleluia.

Gospel

Mark 2:1-12

When Jesus returned to Capernaum after some days,
it became known that he was at home.
Many gathered together so that there was no longer room for them,
not even around the door, and he preached the word to them.
They came bringing to him a paralytic carried by four men.
Unable to get near Jesus because of the crowd,
they opened up the roof above him.
After they had broken through, they let down the mat on which the paralytic was lying.
When Jesus saw their faith, he said to him,
“Child, your sins are forgiven.”
Now some of the scribes were sitting there asking themselves,
“Why does this man speak that way? He is blaspheming.
Who but God alone can forgive sins?”
Jesus immediately knew in his mind what they were thinking to themselves,
so he said,
“Why are you thinking such things in your hearts?
Which is easier, to say to the paralytic,
‘Your sins are forgiven,’
or to say,
‘Rise, pick up your mat and walk’?
But that you may know that the Son of Man has authority to forgive sins on earth”—
he said to the paralytic,
“I say to you, rise, pick up your mat, and go home.”
He rose, picked up his mat at once, and went away in the sight of everyone.
They were all astounded and glorified God, saying,
“We have never seen anything like this.”